Steven Vogel


Steven Vogel was an American biomechanics researcher, the James B. Duke professor in the Department of Biology at Duke University.

Life

Vogel was born in Beacon, New York, and educated there and in Poughkeepsie. He graduated from Tufts University and was awarded his graduate degrees from Harvard University. Vogel joined Duke University as an assistant professor in the Zoology department in 1966, and taught there for 40 years, eventually retiring as professor emeritus.
Over the course of his professional career, Vogel, along with Stephen Wainwright and R. McNeil Alexander, played a fundamental role in the establishment of the discipline of biomechanics, and was a prolific author of popular works on the intersection of physics and biology. His research projects included studies of ventilation currents in prairie dog burrows, flight in tiny insects, leaf streamlining, how air passes through feathery moth antennae, and the mechanics of jet propulsion in squid and scallops. Vogel died of cancer in Durham on November 24, 2015.

Works

In English: